Posts Tagged ‘Mayor Edwin M. Lee’

“Mayor Edwin M. Lee today announced today that the City’s minimum wage will be adjusted to $10.24 per hour from $9.92 per hour, reflecting a change of 3.2 percent, effective January 1, 2012.

“This wage increase will help the City’s lowest paid workers to keep pace with inflation and also protect consumer spending of San Francisco’s working families, which will be a boost to our local economic recovery efforts,” said Mayor Lee.

The Minimum Wage Ordinance, passed by the voters in November 2003, calls for annual rate adjustments based on the previous year’s Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose metropolitan area.”

So, San Francisco having the highest minimum wage in the land is a good thing? Really, it’s unalloyed good? It’s great that our minimum wage is going up into double digits (and making national headlines) during this Great Recession? So why not make it $15 or $20 an hour if high minimum wages are so good?

Since Mayor Ed Lee does what his mentors tell him by crowing about jobs jobs jobs all the time, why then is he in favor of this law, which is, obviously, a “job-killer?” Are there other considerations on his mind?

Anyway, this is the first time I’ve seen the Mayor lose his monomaniacal focus on jobs.

12/6/11—Mayor Edwin M. Lee today announced today that the City’s minimum wage will be adjusted to $10.24 per hour from $9.92 per hour, reflecting a change of 3.2 percent, effective January 1, 2012.

“This wage increase will help the City’s lowest paid workers to keep pace with inflation and also protect consumer spending of San Francisco’s working families, which will be a boost to our local economic recovery efforts,” said Mayor Lee.

The Minimum Wage Ordinance, passed by the voters in November 2003, calls for annual rate adjustments based on the previous year’s Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose metropolitan area

Comparatively, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and the California minimum wage is $8.00 per hour. Employers must pay San Francisco’s higher minimum wage for all covered work performed within the City.

“Across the country, take-home pay, adjusted for inflation, has fallen in the last year. Workers in San Francisco are fortunate that our minimum wage rate is indexed to keep pace with inflation,” said Office of Labor Standards Enforcement Manager Donna Levitt.

This month, the City will be mailing updated multilingual posters announcing the new rate to 45,000 registered businesses with employees. Employers are required to post the notice in their workplace.

More information about San Francisco’s Minimum Wage Ordinance can be found at www.sfgov.org/olse/mwo or by calling the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement at (415) 554-6292.